JP2000050511A - Connector device for electric vehicle charging - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Problem] To provide a connector device for charging an electric vehicle, which can easily perform a design in consideration of the play in the circumferential direction and can reduce the cost as a whole. Communication elements 17A, 17B, 27A,
Since the connector 27B is arranged on the concentric circle of the fitting center of the two connectors 10 and 20, the amount of displacement caused by the play at the time of fitting can be made equal.
The peripheral structures of 7A, 17B, 27A, and 27B can have the same configuration, and it is possible to avoid the cost increase due to designing and using different parts for each. In addition, each optical communication hole 18A, 18B, 28A, 28B
Since the shape of the optical communication hole is arc-shaped, the area of the optical communication hole can be minimized while maintaining a large margin for misalignment. There is little fear that the light transmitting member is damaged.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a charging connector device for charging an electric vehicle.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In order to charge an electric vehicle, it is necessary to connect a charging connector to a power receiving connector provided on the electric vehicle, and to supply power from an external power supply to the power storage device of the electric vehicle via both connectors. It is. 2. Description of the Related Art As a connector used for this type of application, there is known an electromagnetic induction type connector which transmits a power in a non-contact manner by magnetically coupling a pair of coils.

As a specific configuration, one of a charging connector and a power receiving connector is provided with a columnar projection, and this projection is fitted into a receiving recess provided in a mating connector. A configuration in which the coils in both connectors are magnetically coupled has been considered.

In charging an electric vehicle, it is necessary to exchange charging information between a charging side and a power receiving side in order to appropriately control the charging operation.
As described in Japanese Patent No. 27050, attempts have been made to perform this by optical communication. When such an optical communication system is applied to the charging connector device having the above-described configuration, each connector is provided with a light-emitting element and a light-receiving element for transmitting and receiving an optical signal, and a total of two for transmission and reception is provided on the front wall of each element. A configuration is conceivable in which two circular optical communication holes are provided to pass the optical axis of the book.

[0005]

In the above configuration, since the protrusion of one connector is formed in a columnar shape, even if any positioning is performed when the charging connector is fitted to the power receiving connector, It is inevitable that some backlash will occur in the circumferential direction, and the above backlash must be taken into account when designing the structure of each element and optical communication hole.

However, when the two optical communication elements of each connector are arranged, for example, in the radial direction with respect to the center of the projection, the mating element caused by the backlash in the circumferential direction. Is different from each other between the inner peripheral side and the outer peripheral side. Then, when designing the peripheral structure of each element, it is necessary to adopt completely different calculation and structure between the element on the inner peripheral side and the element on the outer peripheral side, for example, to protect the element in each optical communication hole. Even when a light-transmitting member is provided, different parts must be made, which causes an increase in cost.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide an electric vehicle charging system capable of easily performing a design in consideration of a play in the circumferential direction and reducing the cost as a whole. To provide a connector device.

[0008]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided an electric vehicle charging connector device, comprising: a power receiving connector connected to a power storage device of an electric vehicle; A charging connector capable of transmitting the charging power by electromagnetic induction by magnetically coupling the two connectors by fitting the cylindrical fitting protrusion and the receiving recess on the other side. The two connectors each include a plurality of optical communication elements for performing optical communication with a counterpart, wherein the optical communication elements provided in the connectors are each provided with the fitting protrusion and the receiving recess. It is characterized by being arranged on a concentric circle with respect to the center.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the electric vehicle charging connector device according to the first aspect, an optical communication hole provided in each of the connectors and forming a part of an optical path to the optical communication element is provided. It is characterized in that it forms an arc that is arranged concentrically with the center of the fitting projection and the receiving recess.

[0010]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, since each optical communication element is arranged concentrically with respect to the center of the fitting projection and the receiving recess, the optical communication element is arranged in the circumferential direction at the time of fitting. The deviation width from the counterpart element due to the play becomes equal to each other.
Therefore, it is not necessary to independently design each element and its peripheral structure, and it is not necessary to use separate components for each element.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, the optical communication hole is formed in an arc shape which is arranged concentrically with the center of the fitting projection and the receiving recess, so that the fitting error margin of the optical communication hole can be increased. The area can be minimized. Therefore, if the optical communication hole is left open compared to the case where the shape of the optical communication hole is simply enlarged in order to increase the margin, foreign matter is less likely to enter from the hole, Is closed with a light-transmitting member, there is little fear that the light-transmitting member is damaged due to some external force.

[0012]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS One embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. A charging connector 20 having a receiving recess 21 that opens outward is provided on the outer surface of the vehicle body of the electric vehicle. At the time of charging, the connectors 10 and 20 are connected by inserting the fitting protrusion 11 protruding from the charging connector 10 into the receiving recess 21 along the direction of arrow A in FIG. .

The charging connector 10 has a box-shaped housing 12, and a rear surface thereof (the front in the direction of arrow A in FIG. 1) is attached to a robot arm 30 (see FIGS. 1 and 2). . A disc-shaped primary core 13A made of ferrite is buried in the front surface of the housing 12, and a columnar primary core 13B protrudes forward from the center of the primary core 13A. . A cylindrical coil bobbin 14 is fitted around the outer periphery of the primary core 13B. Both ends of the coil bobbin 14 are bent outward, and the primary coil 1 is located between them.
5 is housed in a wound state. When the two connectors are connected, the coil bobbin 14 and the primary core 13 </ b> B are entirely housed in the receiving recess 21 as the fitting protrusion 11.

As shown in FIG. 7, an output terminal of the primary coil 15 is connected to an inverter 41 using a commercial power supply 40 as a power supply.
, And a high-frequency current flows through the primary coil 15 by the inverter device 41. The inverter device 41 can receive a signal from an inverter control circuit 43 including a CPU and control the voltage supplied to the primary coil 15 as described later.

On the other hand, the power receiving connector 20 has a box-shaped housing 22 having one surface opened, and the open surface is flush with the outer surface of the vehicle body (see FIGS. 1 and 3). . The housing 22 is formed with a concave portion 22A having a circular cross section, in which a circular bottom portion 23A and a cylindrical portion 23A are formed.
B is accommodated in the ferrite secondary core 23. Further, in the cylindrical portion 23B of the secondary core 23,
A cylindrical coil bobbin 24 is accommodated. Both ends of the coil bobbin 24 are shaped to be turned outward, and the secondary coil 25 is stored in a state of being wound therebetween. The space inside the coil bobbin 24 is a receiving recess 21, the inner diameter of which is slightly larger than the outer diameter of the fitting protrusion 11, and the length of which is slightly smaller than the length of the fitting protrusion 11. Has been enlarged. That is, the fitting projection 11 is fitted into the receiving recess 21 with a slight margin.

As shown in FIG. 7, the output terminal of the secondary coil 25 is connected to a charging circuit 45 for charging a power battery 44 which is a power storage device for powering an electric vehicle. By rectifying the high-frequency electromotive force induced at 25, power battery 44 corresponding to a power storage device of an electric vehicle can be charged. As shown in the figure, a charging state detection circuit 46 is connected to the charging circuit 45 so that the charging state of the power battery 44 can be detected.

Both housings 12 and 22 on the charging side and the power receiving side
As shown in FIG. 1 to FIG. 3, element arrangement chambers 16 and 26 are provided at mutually opposing positions. The element arrangement chamber 16 of the charging side housing 12 is provided at the upper right of the primary core 13A in FIG. 2, and a light emitting element 17 which is an optical communication element
A and the light receiving element 17B are mounted so as to face forward (the direction of arrow A in FIG. 1). These elements 17A, 1
7B is arranged concentrically with respect to the center of the fitting projection 11, and in FIG. 2, the upper left side is the light emitting element 17A and the lower right side is the light receiving element 17B. Also, the element disposition chamber 1
A front wall 18 is provided in front of 6 and has an arc shape at an angle of, for example, 5 degrees along a concentric circle with respect to the center of the fitting projection 11 corresponding to each of the elements 17A and 17B. Optical communication holes 18A and 18B are formed. Each of the optical communication holes is closed by a light transmitting member 19 capable of transmitting an optical signal in the same shape. And each element 17A,
17B is located at a position corresponding to the center of each of the optical communication holes 18A and 18B. As a result, as shown in FIG. (Referred to as a space X having a shape that expands in a conical shape with the respective elements 17A and 17B as vertices) at a right angle. The inner peripheral edge coincides with the outer edge of the conical space X.

On the other hand, the element arrangement chamber 26 provided in the power receiving side housing 22 has substantially the same structure as the above-described element arrangement chamber 16, and a light receiving element 27B is provided at a position facing the light emitting element 17A on the charging side. The light emitting element 27A is arranged at a position facing the light receiving element 17B. Similarly to the charging side, a front wall 28 is provided in front of the element arrangement chamber 26, and two optical communication holes 28A and 28B are formed in the front wall 28, each of which is closed by a light transmitting member 29.
Each element 27A, 27B is connected to each optical communication hole 28A, 28A.
B, and the relationship between the two is determined by the element 17 in the charging connector 10 shown in FIG.
The relationship between A and 17B and the optical communication holes 28A and 28B is the same.

As shown in FIG. 7, the light receiving element 27A and the light receiving element 27B on the power receiving side are connected to the charging state detecting circuit 46, and receive an optical signal from the charging connector 10 by the light receiving element 27B. Thus, the charging state of the power battery 44 is detected, and the light emitting element 27A is driven accordingly, thereby outputting an optical signal to the charging connector 10 side. The light emitting element 17A and the light receiving element 17B on the charging connector 10 side are connected to the inverter control circuit 43,
The light signal received by the light receiving element 17B is photoelectrically converted and given to the inverter control circuit 43, and the inverter device 41 is controlled by the circuit 43 so that the power battery 44 is appropriately charged.

This embodiment has the above configuration, and its operation will be described below. When charging the electric vehicle, the robot arm 30 to which the charging connector 10 is attached operates to connect the two connectors 10 and 20 together. The robot arm 30 advances the charging connector 10 in the direction A of FIG. 1 such that the charging-side elements 17A and 17B and the power-receiving-side elements 27B and 27A face each other. The fitting operation is completed when the fitting protrusion 11 is accommodated in the receiving recess 21 and the front surface of the charging-side housing 12 and the outer surface of the power-receiving side housing 22 come into contact and become flush (see FIG. 4). At this time, the primary coil 15 is accommodated inside the secondary coil 25 with the axis thereof aligned, and a closed-loop magnetic circuit is formed between the coils 25 and 15.

At the time of charging, an optical signal transmitted from the light emitting element 27A passes through the light transmitting members 29 and 19, reaches the receiving element 17B on the other side, and is charged with one light emitting element 17A.
The optical signal transmitted from A passes through the translucent members 19 and 29, reaches the receiving element 27B on the other side, and is received. As a result, information regarding charging is exchanged between the two connectors. Based on this information, the inverter control circuit 43 controls, for example, an output voltage or the like, so that the power battery 44 is controlled.
The appropriate charging is performed.

By the way, as described above, since the fitting projection 11 has a columnar shape, when the two connectors are fitted together, the charging connector 10 rattles with respect to the power receiving connector 20 in the circumferential direction, Each element on the charging side and each element on the power receiving side may not face each other correctly (see FIG. 5). However, since each optical communication hole is formed in an arc shape with an angular width of 5 degrees along a concentric circle with respect to the center of the fitting projection 11, the shift angle of the charging connector 10 is 5 degrees on both sides from the normal position. Within this range, information can be exchanged by an optical signal without interrupting the optical axis.

As described above, in the charging connector device of this embodiment, each of the optical communication elements 17A, 17B, 27A, 2
7B is arranged on the concentric circle of the fitting center of the two connectors 10 and 20, the amount of displacement caused by the play at the time of fitting can be equalized.
The peripheral structures of A, 17B, 27A, and 27B can have the same configuration, and it is possible to avoid cost increases due to designing and using different parts for each. In addition, each optical communication hole 18A, 18B, 28A, 28B
Is arcuate, so the area of the optical communication hole can be kept to a minimum while securing a large margin for misalignment, and some external force acts as compared with the case where the shape of the optical communication hole is simply enlarged. There is little fear that the light transmitting member is damaged.

The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment. For example, the following ones are also included in the technical scope of the present invention. (1) In the present embodiment, each optical communication hole 18A, 18B, 2
8A and 28B are formed in an arc shape having an angle width of 5 degrees, but this is because each optical communication element 17A, 17B, 27A, 2
What is necessary is just to determine according to design conditions, such as 7B specification.

(2) In this embodiment, the charging connector 1
Although the fitting protrusion 11 is provided on the 0 side, the fitting protrusion may be provided on the power receiving connector 20 side, and the fitting protrusion may be fitted into the receiving recess provided on the charging connector side. .

(3) In the present embodiment, the primary coil 15 is housed inside the secondary coil 25 at the time of fitting. For example, primary and secondary coils of the same diameter are coaxially arranged in parallel. For example, any configuration may be used as long as the two are magnetically coupled at the time of fitting to cause an electromagnetic induction effect.

(4) In this embodiment, both connectors are provided with a light emitting element and a receiving element, respectively. For example, two light emitting elements are provided on the power receiving connector side.
The charging connector may be provided with two receiving elements to transmit optical signals by one-way communication, and the number of elements may be any number as long as it is plural.

(5) In the present embodiment, the shape of the optical communication hole is arc-shaped, but this is not essential, and the optical axes from a plurality of optical communication elements must pass through one optical communication hole. You may.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view of a charging connector and a power receiving connector according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a front view of a charging connector.

FIG. 3 is a front view of a power receiving connector.

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view showing a state in which the charging connector and the power receiving connector are combined.

FIG. 5 is an enlarged cross-sectional view of the element disposition chamber showing a state where the connector is shifted.

FIG. 6 is a schematic perspective view showing a relationship between an optical communication element and an optical communication hole.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram of a charging system.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 10 charging connector 11 fitting protrusion 17A light emitting element (optical communication element) 17B light receiving element (optical communication element) 18A, 18B optical communication hole 20 power receiving connector 21 receiving recess 27A light emission Element (element for optical communication) 27B ... Light receiving element (element for optical communication) 28A, 28B ... Optical communication hole

 ────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Heiji Kuji 1-7-10 Kikuzumi, Minami-ku, Nagoya-shi, Aichi F-term in Harness Research Institute, Inc. (reference) 5G003 GB08 5H111 BB02 BB06 CC16 GG09 GG14 GG16

Claims (2)

[Claims] An electric vehicle comprises a power receiving connector connected to a power storage device of an electric vehicle, and a charging connector connectable to the power receiving connector. In the above-mentioned two connectors, the two connectors are provided with a plurality of optical communication elements for performing optical communication with a counterpart, and the magnetically coupled power is transmitted by electromagnetic induction. An electric vehicle charging connector device, wherein the optical communication element provided in each of the connectors is disposed concentrically with the center of the fitting projection and the receiving recess. 2. An optical communication hole provided in each of the connectors and constituting a part of an optical path to the optical communication element has an arc shape aligned concentrically with the center of the fitting projection and the receiving recess. The connector device for charging an electric vehicle according to claim 1, wherein: